We Say No to ACTA!

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is currently discussed at the parliament of the European Union (EU). This treaty can seriously harm technological innovation and progress. Moreover, ACTA has undemocratic roots since it was discussed secretly for four years.

We believe that communication means such as the Internet, as well as scientific and technological knowledge should be freely accessible to everyone. In the domain of robotics, free software results into a fast progress as seen in the ROS community. A similar virtuous circle can be found at the hardware level with the Arduino boards, and the 3D printers of Makerbot that are licensed under Creative Commons.

This post as well as the ribbon on the top right corner of the site are to state that we are strongly against ACTA. We reject this treaty as well as any other attempts to restrict freedom such as CISPA as well as SOPA and PIPA. The following videos explains the potential dramatic consequence of ACTA.